The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday urged the Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) to make the process for registration of manufacturers simpler and transparent.

LCCI Acting President Khawaja Khawar Rashid, Vice President Zeeshan Khalil and members of Executive Committee, in a joint statement, said manufacturers were required to pay a substantial amount of Rs 11,000 as registration fee, besides visit and evaluation fee to the PSQCA for each product, which was the big deterrent. Moreover, the time period required usually varied from three to six months which again was a long duration, they added.

They said an additional 0.1 per cent on the quarterly sales value had also been demanded by the PSQCA. The Authority had a few designated labs and limited technical staff, which caused delay in the registration process, they added.

They said it had also been conveyed to manufacturers that the packaging of food and cosmetic products must contain PSQCA stamp, as such most of packing would require replacement.

The LLCI office-bearers called for stopping crackdown on cosmetics and food sector. The PSQCA raids were aimed at discouraging sale of un-registered cosmetics and food products, but a wrong impression was being arisen that super-stores were involved in selling substandard cosmetics and food products of unregistered and illegal companies, they added.

They said imposing high fines was also detrimental to economic growth so there was a need to revisit the registration process by the PSQCA – APP